new church life: september/october 2015
Angels excel at acknowledging their profound ignorance and so should
we be both humble and teachable, and confident that the Lord is leading
everyone’s life. Since angelic influx is into what a person knows and believes,
perhaps we should be putting more emphasis on encouraging people to think
for themselves, and leading them to reflect for themselves.
The angelic role of bringing comfort after temptation suggests that sermons
whose truths bring a degree of torment should also bring the certainty of the
Lord’s love for us, no matter what. As with Mr. Frazier’s presentation, this one
was enriched by ongoing interaction with an affirmative audience.
Progress in Outreach
The business session following the break began with balloting for two positions
on the Membership Committee. The incumbents, John Jin and Derrick
Lumsden, were re-elected. With the Revs. Erik Buss, Coleman Glenn, Willard
Heinrichs and Brad Heinrichs rotating off the Bishop’s Consistory, suggestions
were also to be written down for the Bishop to consider as replacements.
Speaking to a pre-circulated report of the Director of General Church
Outreach, the Rev. David Lindrooth touched on a few highlights: the near
completion of a significant refresh of Newchurch.org, which would go live
over the summer; Sunroom teams designed to provide video-led support for
small groups; the energy going into the small group systems, supported by a
doctrinal rationale and their effectiveness; and the mutual benefits of having
some of his Outreach staff also employed by the Bryn Athyn congregation in
a collaborative effort.
He expanded on his report by sharing other exciting things in Outreach,
including the support being offered for webcasting; what support for the
Helping Children In Crisis initiative in Kenya has accomplished; the progress
in digitizing French translations of the Writings, led by the Rev. Sylvain Agnes;
the thrilling opportunities in Cuba for the Spanish-speaking world; and the
fact that NewChurch LIVE has grown to a congregation of more than 600
people and has achieved financial self-sufficiency.
He expressed appreciation for the weekly small group meetings that have
been started for three clergy groups: the church planting clergy, the western
clergy and the European clergy.
Mr. Lindrooth also invited the Rev. Mark Pendleton to talk about the
exciting work on Begin a New Life (BNL), a charitable organization which
makes the doctrine of repentance accessible to many as a life-changing practice.
Mr. Pendleton described his successful application to Google for a grant of
$10,000 of Google advertising per month for the life of the organization, and
the exciting response so far, including weekly downloads of the worksheets,
as well as interest in hosting a BNL seminar in the United States and other
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